1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to projection and display systems and technology, and, more particularly, to projection systems adapted to display images or characters with high resolution and brightness on a display surface or screen such that the images or characters are animated or move on the surface or screen.
2. Relevant Background
In theme parks and other entertainment venues, guests and visitors are often entertained by movies and animated films. For example, queue areas may include display screens where a short animated film is shown to make a wait more enjoyable and may be used as part of the overall show or for advertising upcoming events, other attractions, and available services and products. It is desirable for these movies and animated works to be shown in high resolution or with good quality, and this is typically not a problem in environments where the lighting, the distance from the projection screen or surface is easily controlled, and other display or projection parameters may be easily controlled or changed to suit the needs of the display.
However, there are many applications where the designers of a movie or animated film display have to overcome challenging design parameters. For example, theme and amusement parks may include rides in which the guests or passengers are moved through a show area in vehicles and due to space constraints, a display or projection screen has to be placed very close to the side of the vehicle. As a result, the displayed image may only be several feet from the viewing passengers or guests, and such closeness to a projection screen can make it very difficult to provide high quality images (e.g., images with relatively high resolution and brightness). For example, a projection or display screen may be similar in size to those found in movie theaters, and use of a single projector such as one with a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels or the like would result in the image appearing grainy and dull to viewers due to the relatively large pixel size (e.g., similar to sitting closer than the front row to watch a movie at a theater).
In other applications, it may be desirable to display animated characters or movie/film images to select groups of the riders or guests in the vehicles (such as to guests as their vehicle passes a portion of the display or projection screen/surface), and it is difficult to provide high quality imagery on only a portion of the screen or provide characters that can move with the vehicle. Another problem facing many ride designers is how to maintain a desired level of darkness or blackness on unused portions of the screen such as when the character is only located in a portion of the large screen. Typically, a single projector will project some lower level of light onto these non-projected areas causing the screen about the displayed image to be undesirably gray or illuminated.
The problem may be stated more generally as involving media playback on a large screen, and the media playback may include animated characters, such as animals, people, or other characters from an animated work or film. The use of a single projector does not provide enough pixels or a high enough resolution to create an acceptably sharp image for an audience located only a few feet away (e.g., as may be viewed through an opening, a window, or a porthole of a ride vehicle such as may be provided in an underwater ride like a submarine, a spaceship, and many other vehicles or in non-ride applications).
In an attempt to overcome the problems with using one projector for a large screen, some projection systems have been created that utilize numerous projectors that each project on a smaller subset of the display surface. Each of these projectors typically has to be arranged to overlap or feather their edges to create a continuous image. High resolution can be achieved by synchronizing all of the playback devices providing images to the projectors. In one exemplary implementation, a tiled projector system was utilized that included 90 projectors with 90 synchronized, high definition playback devices such that these projectors acted together to display a movie or a set of animation images (e.g., at a rate of 24 to 30 frames per second or the like). In other words, each projector was used to display images on a much smaller area of the screen to provide an adequate resolution or number of pixels within each smaller area (e.g., onto about 1/90 of the screen area in this example). While useful in some applications, the use of numerous projectors to display a movie typically is very expensive, and it is complex to design the physical arrangement of the projectors and the control and feed/input of the playback devices (e.g., costly and time consuming to produce the input media and to blend all of the projected images together to provide a single high resolution image). During use to display a movie or animated work with a smaller number of character images, most of the projectors are projecting nothing and only project a character image when it passes through a corresponding projection field (e.g., the projector remains on even when not in use to project an image and often creates an illuminating effect that undesirably leads to a graying effect).
Hence, there remains a need for improved visual display techniques and systems such as for creating an animated character or image on a display surface (such as projection screen or the like) that has high quality even when viewed from small distances (e.g., less than about 10 feet and often less than 5 feet). Preferably such techniques and systems would be inexpensive to install, would require minimal maintenance, and would be configurable to position into small or limited physical spaces. Also, it would be preferable if such techniques and systems would provide a bright image while providing, in some applications, very dark or black surrounding areas such as to hide or not illuminate surrounding portions of the display surface or screen.